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Events Faculty & Staff Students

Employers heavily recruit Penn College students

The Spring 2019 Career Fair attracted more than 450 employers – including 29 Fortune 500 companies – to Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Field House (shown here) and Bardo Gymnasium. Employers were offering 5,000-plus jobs and internships.

Employers plan to hire 16.6 percent more graduates from the class of 2019 than they did from the previous year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The recent Pennsylvania College of Technology Career Fair reflected that trend.

The college expanded its Career Fair to a two-day, two-location event in order to accommodate the surge of employers recruiting “tomorrow makers” from the school’s 100-plus diverse majors. More than 450 employers – including 29 Fortune 500 companies – networked with students in the college’s Field House and Bardo Gymnasium, offering 5,000-plus jobs and internships.

“Expanding the Career Fair was essential to meet the needs of employers,” said Erin S. Shultz, coordinator of career development. “Every year it seems the demand for our students increases because of the tremendous value of their applied technology education. Our graduates are real-world ready.”

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Alumni Students

ICE-T majors on visiting employers’ radar

Penn College students and alumni in a variety of majors in the School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies are the focus of the coming week’s visits by prospective employers.

  • First Quality – 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in Room B1034 of the Hager Lifelong Education Center
  • Profi-Vision – 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28; Room 110 of the Electrical Technologies Center, with interviews to follow directly after the information session

For more, including available positions and sought-after majors, check out the Career Services flyer: Employer visits

Events Faculty & Staff Students

Turning imagination into impactful reality

Conversing with students and faculty in the Makerspace
Conversing with students and faculty in the Makerspace
During the Makerspace visit, Brueckner explains her “Embodisuit” that allows its wearer to map signals onto different places on the body to experience meaningful connections.
During the Makerspace visit, Brueckner explains her “Embodisuit” that allows its wearer to map signals onto different places on the body to experience meaningful connections.
Paul L. Starkey, vice president for academic affairs/provost, introduces the speaker ...
Paul L. Starkey, vice president for academic affairs/provost, introduces the speaker …
... who closed out a busy Thursday visit as a colloquium keynoter in the ACC Auditorium.
… who closed out a busy Thursday visit as a colloquium keynoter in the ACC Auditorium.
Brueckner describes her prototype for an “Empathy Amulet,” a networked wearable device connecting anonymous people through shared warmth.
Brueckner describes her prototype for an “Empathy Amulet,” a networked wearable device connecting anonymous people through shared warmth.

“I’m so impressed with what good makers you are!” Sophia Brueckner said at the start of her Technology & Society Colloquia Series talk in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium.

The futurist artist/designer/engineer toured the Pennsylvania College of Technology campus Thursday, addressed a small afternoon gathering of mostly industrial design and graphic design students and faculty in The Dr. Welch Workshop – A Makerspace at Penn College, and delivered her keynote address, “Prototyping Alternative Futures,” to a crowd of college and community attendees in the evening.

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Automated Manufacturing & Machining Corporate Relations Faculty & Staff Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies Workforce Development

Companies’ generosity supports Penn College students

Commemorating an arrangement allowing Penn College students access to a high-end CNC machine are, from left, Elizabeth A. Biddle, director of corporate relations at Penn College; Suzette Snyder, director of human resources and talent acquisition for Lycoming Engines; Randy Ditch, president, Gosiger East Coast Region; Bill Wilson, key accounts manager, Gosiger Mid-Atlantic; Tyler McCoy, manufacturing engineering supervisor at Lycoming Engines and a Penn College alumnus; Richard K. Hendricks Jr., instructor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing; and Gregg Shimp, vice president, integrated operations, Lycoming Engines.

An industry staple, computer numerical control machines are a common sight in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s automated manufacturing lab. Students operate the 17 CNC units daily to master the intricacies of using computer software to control the machines’ tools in shaping metal.

A recent addition to the CNC collection has changed the lab’s landscape. At 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall, the 18,000-pound unit towers above other instructional equipment in the 12,000-square-foot facility. The Genos M560 vertical machine center – built by the Okuma Corp. – makes quite the impression. More importantly, it offers students another valuable learning experience.

“It’s certainly a higher-end CNC unit,” said Richard K. Hendricks Jr., instructor and department head of automated manufacturing and machining. “It goes beyond the machines we typically have access to. If we were comparing it to a car, this would be like a Mercedes or BMW.”

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Automated Manufacturing & Machining General Information Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies Plastics & Polymer President Workforce Development

Penn College profiled on ‘PMA Perspective’ on PCN

Penn College students featured on "PMA Perspective" are Alexa M. Korinchak, a plastics and polymer engineering technology major from Hellertown, working on the heavy-gauge thermoformer ...
Penn College students featured on “PMA Perspective” are Alexa M. Korinchak, a plastics and polymer engineering technology major from Hellertown, working on the heavy-gauge thermoformer …
... and Shujaa AlQahtani, of Saudi Arabia, a manufacturing engineering technology demonstrating the Genos M560 vertical machining center.
… and Shujaa AlQahtani, of Saudi Arabia, a manufacturing engineering technology demonstrating the Genos M560 vertical machining center.

The second of two episodes of “PMA Perspective” featuring Penn College will air at 8:30 a.m. Sunday on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

David N. Taylor, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, and the “PMA Perspective” crew toured and filmed in the plastics and polymer engineering technology labs, led by Kirk M. Cantor, professor of plastics technology; in automated manufacturing/machining, guided by Richard K. Hendricks, instructor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing; and in rapid prototyping (3D printing), led by Eric K. Albert, associate professor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing.

This past week’s first episode featured an interview with Penn College President Davie Jane Gilmour and a tour of the mechatronics lab. For that segment, Taylor interviewed Howard W. Troup, instructor of automated manufacturing/machine tool technology, and Christopher P. Ray, executive director, business development.

The show can be seen on the “PMA Perspective” website; the second installment will be available there soon after the initial broadcast.

Accounting & Finance Business & Hospitality Business & Hospitality Management Students

Student selected for Northwestern Mutual development program

Dianna R. Weaver

Pennsylvania College of Technology business administration student Dianna R. Weaver, who is completing an internship with Northwestern Mutual, has been selected for the company’s Next Level Development program.

Interns selected for the program have written 10 or more life insurance policies during their intern year and plan to continue to work for the company.

Weaver, of Morris, has been interning as a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual for nearly a year, completing the same duties as a full-time financial representative. Working under the guidance of an experienced mentor, she develops clients and helps them to devise a financial plan to meet their goals. As part of the requirements to work as a Northwestern Mutual intern, she secured the Pennsylvania Life Accident and Health license.

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Faculty & Staff Students

Building a home … away from home

The group, en route to South Carolina

Ten students and two staff mentors from Penn College traveled to South Carolina this month, a nearly 600-mile journey as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge. The group worked on a house in the Marion County community of Mullins, where the local Habitat organization is using autoclaved aerated concrete – an eco-friendly building material, resistant to extreme weather conditions – for the first time. Students who made the Alternative Spring Break trip are Hunter C. Dubbs, Bendersville, software development and information management; Aniah T. Ellerbee, Tannersville, building construction technology; Cas D. Henderson, Hazel Hurst, business administration: banking and finance concentration; Abby K. Kohler, Mar Lin, pre-practical nursing; Stacy L. Lash, Pottsville, applied human services; Adriana S. Lee, Williamsport, landscape/horticulture technology: plant production emphasis; Kimberly P. Masullo, Effort, building construction technology; Alaina M. Murren, Aspers, dental hygiene; Princy Prasad, Philadelphia, pre-physician assistant studies; and Michael V. Saylor, Gettysburg, residential construction technology and management: building construction technology concentration. They were accompanied by Sammie L. Davis, coordinator of diversity and cultural life (who provided the photos), and Cathy E. Gamez, hall coordinator for Rose Street Commons. “Habitat for Humanity is a great way to get out of your comfort zone and learn something new,” Prasad said. “I went from learning biology and anatomy to learning how to bore a hole into a block!” Penn College is one of three institutions involved in the ongoing construction project; crews from Siena and Hamilton colleges also worked at the site over their respective hiatus from classes.

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General Information

Welcome, spring!

Often heard before they are seen, a blue jay makes its presence known on campus.
Often heard before they are seen, a blue jay makes its presence known on campus.
Buds bursting with promise
Buds bursting with promise
Bob-bob-bobbin' along
Bob-bob-bobbin’ along
A welcome flash of green
A welcome flash of green
Redbird + blue sky = a cardinal combination
Redbird + blue sky = a cardinal combination

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
Charles Dickens,
“Great Expectations”

No one quite knows what to expect during March in Pennsylvania, but Wednesday’s vernal equinox brought optimistic signs that the season between that fictional “winter” and “summer” has, in fact, arrived.
Photos by Rachel A. Eirmann, student photographer

Collision Repair & Restoration Diesel & Power Generation Faculty & Staff Students Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies

Club’s diesel drag truck named ‘Top Race Vehicle’ at auto show

The first-place Motorama trophy and club banner adorn the drag truck, a fixture in Penn College’s diesel lab through two decades’ worth of students.

A diesel drag truck, which has provided nearly 20 years’ worth of unique laboratory experience for Pennsylvania College of Technology students, recently captured first place at a popular automotive festival in Harrisburg.

The college’s Diesel Performance Club took the modified 1959 Mack B61 truck to the Motorama Speed Show at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex for the second year and brought home the trophy as the event’s “Top Race Vehicle.”

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Diesel & Power Generation Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies

Added to the library CATalog …

An engine that requires no search, this brightly colored Caterpillar equipment stands out in landmark surroundings.
An engine that requires no search, this brightly colored Caterpillar equipment stands out in landmark surroundings.

Representative of both a bedrock academic program and an enduring corporate partnership, a Caterpillar 3208 industrial diesel engine has become part of the decor in Penn College’s Madigan Library. Delivered to main campus from the Schneebeli Earth Science Center, the engine has been mounted onto a stand for display near the facility’s magazine racks. The library has showcased any number of curricular items over the years, from wedding cakes and floral arrangements to antique automobiles and student artwork. A piece of overflow equipment from the diesel-lab inventory, the engine stands as a substantial reminder to library patrons of the career-building majors around every corner – even in unexpected places!

Alumni Events Students

Spring Career Fair

Plastics and polymer engineering technology students Cassie N. Shook, of Wesport, and Evan M. Prough, of Lock Haven, visit with a graduate of their major: B. Braun Medical Inc.'s Daniel M. Dietrich.

Business and industry from across the country attended Penn College’s on-campus Career Fair this week to offer thousands of opportunities to tomorrow makers. Students and alumni attending the fair – chronicled in this PCToday photo gallery – purposefully strolled the Field House and Bardo Gymnasium in search of recruiters with whom to network and learn what internship and job opportunities are available. Tuesday’s opening of Penn College’s two-day Career Fair attracted broadcast interest from the area’s NBC and ABC affiliates. WBRE’s Morgan Parrish and WNEP’s Kristina Papa both visited campus Tuesday, talking with Career Services staff, students and employers involved in the premier networking event.

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Faculty & Staff Sports Students

Penn College ‘fielding’ esports team

esports

Pennsylvania College of Technology students have a new avenue to flex their competitive muscles in support of their school. The college has formed an esports team that will challenge other colleges and universities for video game supremacy beginning later this month.

“A large portion of our student body consists of active gamers. Establishing a team allows us to formalize that interest in the name of Penn College and facilitate participation for the students in recognized competitions against other schools,” said John D. Vandevere, director of athletics. “The team will be a tremendous outlet for the students, and will serve as a campus life enhancement.”

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Events

Sci-fi-inspired prototypes focus of futurist designer’s talk

Sophia Brueckner

A futurist designer will share her insights into science fiction-inspired prototyping at the next Technology & Society Colloquia Series talk at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Sophia Brueckner, assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art & Design, will deliver “Prototyping Alternative Futures” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.

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